Sacramento has hosted many kind of food festivals in the past such as beer and chili festivals. But on August 15th, SacTown Wings hosted their second annual chicken wing festival at Cesar Chavez Park in Downtown Sacramento with partnership with Habitat for Humanity. Live music from local bands and artists played in the background while attendees, both adults and children, came to enjoy good food and good music. XOSO Sport & Social League was also present as they provided games such as Giant Jenga and Giant Beer Pong for attendees to play while they drank their beer, ate their wings, and laughed with friends.

With over 40,000 chicken wings, the options were endless as vendors like Chicago Fire, Barwest, Sac Food Co-op, and many more came to support SacTown Wings’ partnership with Habitat for Humanity of Greater Sacramento. Habitat for Humanity is a non-profit organization that focuses on building homes for families and revitalizing neighborhoods.

Attendees playing games at the event.

“This is my second time volunteering with SacTown Wings,” said Laura G., a member of XOSO and also a SacTown Wings volunteer. “Last year they had the event at Fremont Park and decided to move it here [at Cesar Chavez Park] because the turnout was so big. They doubled in size with the amount of vendors that are here today and I think a lot more people are going to show up today for a good cause.”

As a national non-profit organization, Habitat for Humanity has built and repaired more than 1 million homes throughout the United States since its establishment in 1976. So far in the Greater Sacramento area, 124 homes have been built through the support of Habitat for Humanity. As the amount of homes being built and neighborhoods being repaired are rising in Sacramento, they couldn’t have done it without the support of events such as SacTown Wings.

With over 120 homes built in Sacramento through Habitat for Humanity, this proves how community-oriented Sacramentans are as events like SacTown Wings continues to support local communities.

For more information about Habitat for Humanity Greater Sacramento, visit their website here: http://habitatgreatersac.org/

As the Fight for $15 continues in Sacramento, Raise the Wage supporters demonstrated that they still feel strongly about raising the minimum wage by forming a rally an hour earlier than the initial meeting. But little did they know that they would have a surprise guest visit.

On Friday, August 7th, North Natomas celebrated the grand opening of their farmers market at the North Natomas Regional Park. Although North Natomas already has a farmers market running on Saturday mornings, this is an additional, separate market in a different location. The addition of a second farmer’s market is great for the community because it promotes healthy living by providing the option of fresh and organic produce at an inexpensive cost.

For the event’s first day there was a large turnout. There were many things for a person of every age to do. The event provided face painting for children, a beer and wine garden for adults, and a live band playing music for everyone to enjoy. Vendors could been seen selling a variety of produce such as Italian ice, fruits and vegetables, and even fresh flowers. Prices ranged anywhere from $1 to $10, making fresh produce easily accessible and affordable.

Photo by Allyson C.

“Great, great food from the food trucks!” said Allyson, a North Natomas community member who attended the event. “Produce is a bit limited, but a good amount for the first start.”

Local business and organizations also benefited from the farmers market. Local law enforcement was present enjoying their time and engaging with the community. A local wine and beer stand was selling alcohol with proceeds going to the Front Street Shelter. These were just some of the few ways that the community was giving back.

The farmers market is expected to run throughout October. Here is more information if you would like to attend the farmer’s market.

National Night Out was on August 4th. It is a national event that promotes a healthy relationship between communities and their local law enforcement. In this video, the North Natomas community speaks about how events like National Night Out can effectively help communities come together to bring a safer environment for everyone to live in.

On July 29, 2015, the fight to raise the California minimum wage to $15 commenced in City Hall. With several more meetings to take place in the coming month, this is just the beginning of a fight for many minimum wage workers.

On Wednesday, July 29th, many minimum-wage workers flooded the seats of City Hall as they listened in on the first of many meetings on raising Sacramento’s minimum wage from $9 an hour to $15 an hour. Many California cities, such as Oakland and San Francisco, have already raised their minimum wage from $9 to $12.25 an hour.

During the first meeting, there was a panel of 12 Task Force members present. The Task Force is composed of community stakeholders chosen by the City of Sacramento. The Task Force was originally created by Mayor Kevin Johnson to combat the income inequality in Sacramento.

For the duration of the meeting, representatives that spoke with the panel gave an overview on the current wage demographics. Supported with statistical information, representatives stressed that factors involved with minimum wage included child care, self-sufficiency, levels of education, and how many households include people of color struggling to meet basic needs by living off of the $9 minimum wage.

As time was given for public comment, many seated in the audience awaited their turn to tell their story and why this mattered to them.

“Being a minimum wage worker, you understand that things don’t meet,” said Wanda, a member of South Sacramento Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment.

“The minimum wage should be $15 an hour because we need more money to survive,” said Denise, another member of the group ACCE. “It’s hard to pay the rent, it’s hard to pay the bills, and it’s hard to buy food.”

Denise is a diabetic and finds it difficult to be able to afford the proper diet she needs to be healthy with Sacramento’s current minimum wage. Illnesses and disabilities were some factors present for the Task Force to consider. Many other factors that were considered during the meeting were how many people were in a household, whether or not those households included children and/or the elderly, the highest level education of members in the household, and how many of these households had members working full time.

All of these issues influence the Task Forces’ decision making process as they continue to deliberate on how the Council should take action.

The planned future meetings are as followed:

Wednesday, August 5th from 4pm to 6pm

Wednesday, August 12th from 4pm to 6pm

Wednesday, August 19th from 4pm to 6pm (Closed meeting)

Wednesday, August 26th from 4pm to 6pm

Tuesday, September 15th beginning at 6pm (Task Force sends final recommendations to the Council)

To learn more about Raise the Wage Sacramento Coalition, join members at the Task Force meetings above or attend their upcoming community forum which will be held on Thursday, August 13th, from 6 pm to 8pm at For His Glory Church, 2001 Grand Avenue.

California State University, Sacramento is assisting their local community with their aquaponics program. Aquaponics is the combination of aquaculture and hydroponics. Hydroponics is the growing of plants by replacing soil with water. The basic concept of aquaponics is that fish and other aquatic animals produce waste which is then converted to nutrients for the plants. Through aquaponics, two crops, animal and plant, are yielded instead of one.

The program at CSUS is led by Dudley Burton who is one of the university’s environmental studies professors. Professor Burton and his students who take part of this program work closely with the Sacramento Food Bank and the Oak Park Sol Community Garden where they demonstrate and encourage the use of aquaponics. They also use the program as a teaching tool to demonstrate key principles of sustainability, linkage between waste management and waste production, and energy and water conservation.

“Some of our systems are designed to use only as much water as the plants require,” said Professor Dudley. “So it’s really energy and water conserving.”

California is well known as a farming state and is also, unfortunately, currently facing an historic drought. Although aquaponics heavily relies on water as one of its essential components, it uses substantially less water than traditional agriculture does. The water that is used is recycled, and goes through a closed system repeatedly. Some of the systems at CSUS are designed only to use as much water as the plants require, making the aquaponics method highly efficient for both water consumption and energy use.

Although the program is fairly new, created just over a year-and-a-half ago, Professor Dudley and student members of the aquaponics program are working on the expansion of the program’s relationship with CSUS. Their future plans include working with the food services on campus to share the edible products from their aquaponics program with on-campus restaurants. They’ll also be expanding in a direction where they can process all of the campus’ bio-waste such as food waste, brown waste (leaves, sticks, etc.), and green waste into energy. The program has a lot of room to grow and is continuing to make it their goal to share their knowledge with the community.

Hello everyone! I am Maipaluku Moua and this is my community: Rio Linda. Although small, there are many things here that you can’t do in the suburbs and community members who live here really cherish this.

Hello everyone! My name is Maipaluku Moua and I recently completed my first year of college at UC Santa Cruz where I studied Psychology. I decided to return to Sacramento for school where I am currently attending American River College. Although my time in Santa Cruz was great, I knew that I wanted to return to Sacramento where I could support the community that I grew up in. With my first year of college done in Santa Cruz, I learned a lot and would like to bring the new things I learned to Sacramento. What better way to do this than with Access Sacramento?

Before I left for school in Santa Cruz, I attended a law-themed charter high school called NP3 located in North Natomas. Ever since I attended NP3, an interest in law sparked in me. Although I am interested in pursuing a career in the law field, I have always had a passion for working with the media. I often created and edited videos in high school that I shared with my classmates. I used to play around with different computer programs and record videos from my phone and video cameras teaching myself how to use them, but I am glad that I can now turn that hobby into an opportunity to bring together my community.

I am a very community-oriented person. In my spare time when I’m not attending classes or appreciating the city that I live in, I like to volunteer at local events. One of the more recent events that I volunteered for was the Hello Kitty Friendship Festival here in Sacramento. I think it’s a great thing to volunteer and even greater to get to know your community better.

With my genuine interest in my community and passion for working with the media, I am ecstatic to be a neighborhood news correspondent for Access Sacramento. I am grateful for the opportunity to bring neighborhood news to you all and am looking forward to the upcoming months ahead!

Born and raised in beautiful Sacramento, I enjoy spending time with friends and family in this city I like to call home.